The Identifiler® Direct kit has been developed and optimized to enable direct PCR amplification from single source samples on FTA® cards without any loss in resulting data quality, as shown in figures 1-2 below.

In addition to the extensive validation studies performed internally by Applied Biosystems, the kit was tested extensively by a number of high-throughput forensic databasing laboratories. Table 1 below shows combined results from 4 U.S. test site laboratories that tested the Identifiler® Direct kit with blood and buccal samples on FTA® cards and obtained average success rates ranging from 90.9% to 99.5%, depending on sample type and minimum RFU threshold.

Figure 1: Example of a blood sample on FTA® card amplified using the Identifiler® Direct kit. Heterozygote peak heights average approximately 2000 rfu.

Figure 2: DNA extracted from liquid blood (using Applied Biosystems BloodPrep® chemistry on a 6100 platform), with 1 ng amplified using the Identifiler® kit compared to the same blood samples immobilized on FTA® cards and direct-amplified using the Identifiler® Direct kit.

Table 1: Combined results from 4 U.S. test site laboratories that tested the Identifiler® Direct kit with blood and buccal samples on FTA® cards.